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Production

All of the stories in the first season were originally written by the Rev. W. Awdry, including a one-off story commissioned by the staff, Thomas' Christmas Party. The stories were then scripted for television by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton. The seven engines introduced in this series became the core of the cast in later episodes. The Pilot for the series was an adaptation of Down the Mine, which was remade entirely when the rest of the episodes were shot.

The Pilot

The original 1983 pilot episode of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The pilot was based on the Railway Series story Down the Mine and differed from the final aired version. The pilot was never broadcasted, instead it was re-filmed after the series was green-lighted by ITV.

Trivia

When first broadcast on ITV, two episodes were compiled into one ten minute block with a nameboard sequence featured in between. For subsequent broadcasts, the stories were shown individually.

The season took about nine months to film.

The Norwegian, Finnish and early Swedish narrations credit Ringo Starr as the narrator, even though they were re-dubbed in their respective languages.

Most of the season's scripts were partially edited for the US versions.

In the Ukrainian version, Ringo Starr's voice can be heard in the background.

This was the only season for several things:

The only season to have its UK recordings released in the US.

The only season where lead was used to create the human characters. From the second to eleventh seasons, all human characters were made from resin, so they could move around more easily.

The only season where the trucks have their faces embedded into their bodies. From the second season to the eleventh season, the trucks have molded faces, although some first season style trucks appeared in some episodes of that season.

The only model season not filmed at Shepperton Studios. Instead, it was filmed at Clapham Junction in Battersea.

The only season in the Finnish dub that Thomas is known as Thomas the Tank Engine.

The events of the first seven episodes of this season were all later retold in 2015 for the 45-minute special The Adventure Begins.

When first broadcast on ITV, Dirty Objects was paired with Thomas' Christmas Party and Off the Rails with Down the Mine. On VHS however, Dirty Objects was paired with Off the Rails and Down the Mine with Thomas' Christmas Party.